In Episode 445, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger drive up to Hinsdale, New Hampshire, to watch a movie in Northfield, Massachusetts. How will they cross time and space to pull this off? They’ll first have to travel back to the year 1948 to see how it all came together.
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CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING IN CAR]
JEFF: Ray, are there any big blockbuster movies you’re looking forward to seeing this summer?
RAY: Hmmm. Definitely Supergirl. I like the darker take on the superhero. Oh, and Spiderman.
JEFF: You do like those superhero movies.
RAY: I do! What about you? Anything you’re looking forward to?
JEFF: I’d like to see The Odyssey!
RAY: You’re so literary…
JEFF: Yeah, considering it’s written and directed by Christopher Nolan, I’m sure it’s more big-budget action adventure than Homer’s ancient Greek epic.
RAY: That’s fair.
JEFF: Okay, we’re cruising along Route 63 in southern New Hampshire… and… yup… We’re making a left right up there.
[BLINKAH]
RAY: Okay, got it. (BEAT) Oh cool! A drive-in movie theater!
JEFF: This is our destination, Ray. We’ve come to Hinsdale, New Hampshire, to watch a movie… in Northfield, Massachusetts.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger, and welcome to Episode 445 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger, thanks for joining us as we chronicle every wicked strange legend in New England from roadside oddities, to ghosts, monsters, aliens, weird history and more. We can’t do it without you! Please reach out to us anytime through our website with your story leads. We love to hear from you.
JEFF: Also on our website you can find our legendary map! Did you know we have an interactive map with a pin in the location of every story we’ve ever covered?
RAY: I DID know that?
JEFF: Oh good! Anyway, you click on the pin in the map, you can see and hear the story and even get driving directions to see it for yourself. Plus, while on our website you can find links to see my story tour, dates to see Ray’s band the Pub Kings, and a link to buy my latest book Wicked Strange New England featuring the photography of Frank Grace.
RAY: We’ll check out this multi-state movie right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: So we’re in Hinsdale, New Hampshire.
JEFF: Right.
RAY: But we’re going to watch a movie in Massachusetts?
JEFF: Correct.
RAY: Then shouldn’t we be in Massachusetts?
JEFF: Not in this case.
RAY: Either way, it’s cool to see a drive-in movie theater. There aren’t many left!
JEFF: That’s true. There was a time when drive-ins were all the rage. It was just after World War II, everyone had a car, and you could buy land cheap on the outskirts of towns, which was the perfect place for a drive-in movie theater.
RAY: That makes sense.
JEFF: Cheap land and cheap taxes on the land meant it didn’t cost much to put up a theater.
RAY: I can imagine there’s not a ton of money to be made at a drive-in. You really only have the warmer months to show movies, if the weather is bad no one will go to see a drive-in movie. I guess you’d need to keep the risks low somehow.
JEFF: So, back to the Northfield Drive-In.
RAY: Northfield? But we’re standing in Hinsdale, New Hampshire.
JEFF: We are. But the screen is in Northfield, Massachusetts.
RAY: I get it now. Showing movies across state lines.
JEFF: To be fair, Hinsdale, New Hampshire and Northfield, Massachusetts are adjacent to each other, and this drive-in straddles the border. To find out why, let’s head back to 1948.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s April of 1948 here in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Harry S. Truman is in the White House, World War II ended three years ago, and America is in a boom period. The economy is still ramping up, people are buying homes and cars, and there’s plenty of jobs.
JEFF: Especially construction jobs.
[CONSTURCTION SOUNDS/POWER SAWS UNDER NEXT FEW LINES]
JEFF: And that’s exactly what’s happening in this remote section of Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Carl Neilman from Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, figures this is the perfect place for a drive-in theater. We’re maybe 30 minutes from Greenfield and Orange, Mass. There’s Northfield, Hinsdale, New Hampshire, Winchester and Richmond, New Hampshire aren’t that far. It’s a great spot.
RAY: Not only that, the next closest drive-in theater is in Springfield, Mass.
JEFF: So no close competition.
RAY: Right. Neilman is placing most of his drive-in theater on the Northfield, Massachusetts, side of the line.
JEFF: It’s pretty open around here. A great spot.
RAY: Neilman will have a concession stand, of course. And he’s wiring a speaker system to 150 parking spaces so cars can hang a speaker in their window and hear the movie.
JEFF: Yup. This is going to be a first-class drive-in.
[CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS ABRUPTLY STOP]
JEFF: Wait… What happened?
RAY: Construction stopped for some reason. (BEAT) I can see Carl Neilman waving his hands for his workers to stop.
JEFF: The plan is to open for business this month. I don’t think he can afford to shut down construction right now.
[GUYS ARGUING IN THE BACKGROUND]
JEFF: Hmmm.. sounds like there’s a problem.
RAY: Oh man… I just overheard the problem.
JEFF: What is it?
RAY: It turns out Massachusetts has a law that requires movie operators to have not one but TWO union projectionists on-hand for the showing of any movie.
JEFF: Huh.
RAY: The profit margins on a drive-in are pretty tight. So Neilman is shifting the construction project. The plan is now to put the projection booth and concession stand on the Hinsdale, New Hampshire, side of the border.
JEFF: Got it. I’m guessing New Hampshire doesn’t have the same union laws?
RAY: No, they don’t.
[CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS AGAIN]
RAY: So the crew is back to work. The projection booth and concession stand—really most of the drive-in theater will be on the Hinsdale, New Hampshire, side of the border, and the screen, part of it is in Northfield, Massachusetts.
JEFF: Anything to save a buck.
RAY: Every penny counts in this business. The cement block projection booth and concession stand is located 250 feet from the screen, which is made of asbestos shingles that have been painted white. The Northfield VFW Post runs the concessions, there are also two bathrooms in the main building. There’s also a repairman on hand to fix any broken speakers should there be any problems during the movies.
[CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS SLOW FADE]
RAY: It’s now August 3rd. After months of delays, Neilman is finally ready to open for business.
JEFF: It’s a shame so much of the summer has already passed, but what can you do?
[CARS DRIVING BY]
[FILM PROJECTOR STARTS WHIRRING]
JEFF: The plan is to show movies in New Hampshire on a screen in Massachusetts. The first film tonight is The Captain from Castile starring Tyrone Power. One projectionist. Money saved. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: Carl Neilman became a drive-in movie theater mogul. He’d go on to own 15 drive-in theaters throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Northfield Theater is the only one still in operation today.
JEFF: The original screen was destroyed by a hurricane in 1951, but they rebuilt. The screen here today is 80 feet wide and 54 feet tall.
RAY: The drive-in has been bought and sold a few times over the decades. One cool fact about this drive-in; back in 1998 Miramax Films used it for a filming location for the movie The Cider House Rules.
JEFF: Oh cool!
RAY: There were a few scenes where Toby McGuire and Charlize Theron are at a drive-in. That was filmed here.
JEFF: Great movie.
RAY: Definitely.
JEFF: In the 1950s, there were over 5,000 drive-in movie theaters in the United States. Today, there are less than 300. The Northfield Drive-in… which is technically mostly in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, is one of them. They still show new and retro movies during the warmer months. Maybe showing movies across state lines saved them just enough dollars over the years, that they’re still with us. Still taking in carloads of people to watch movies the way our parents and grandparents once did.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: Amen. And that takes us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
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To see some pictures of the Northfield Drive-in, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 445.
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We’d like to thank our sponsors, thank you to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.